SpaceShipTwo

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spacecraft took to the skies over the Mojave desert in an unpowered flight test of the ship's feather re-entry system. The glide test is the fourth independent flight of the craft designed to carry paying passengers on brief excursions to the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic has returned to flight status with SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity taking to the skies over Mojave, California. Though a full crew was in the cockpit, this was a captive-carry test flight, where the passenger-carrying spacecraft remained firmly attached to the mothership.

​Virgin Galactic comes a step closer to heading back into space as the FAA awards the company an operating license for SpaceShipTwo. Coming almost two years after a midair accident that took the life of a test pilot, Virgin Galactic says that is will eventually allow commercial operations to begin.

Over a year after a fatal test flight accident, Virgin Galactic is back as CEO Sir Richard Branson today unveiled the new spacecraft that will replace the ill-fated SpaceShipTwo,

The NTSB released the conclusions of its accident investigation of the crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo saying that the accident was due to an error by the co-pilot, who prematurely released the spacecraft's feather system, placing too much stress on the fuselage and causing it to break up.

It's been a busy year in space. In a mixture of triumph and tragedy, space exploration reached new horizons, tested new technologies, and pushed the limits of the possible in 2014. So as the old year draws to close, Gizmag looks back on the space highlights of the past twelve months.

Even though the investigations into the SpaceShipTwo incident are only beginning, there are those who already claim that Sir Richard Branson’s dream of sending tourists on suborbital flights into space is as dead as the Hindenburg. But is it?

The pilots of the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane that crashed during a test flight on Friday have been identified. Meanwhile, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) held a press conference on Saturday evening, releasing details of the ongoing accident investigation.

One of the two pilots who were aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is dead and the second pilot, who parachuted from the spaceplane before it crashed in the desert, is in hospital after suffering serious injuries.

Science and space tourism shook hands this week with NASA announcing 12 technology experiments that will fly on the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane under a charter agreement with Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America have signed a joint agreement with the FAA for access to airspace for spaceflights from New Mexico. The agreement helps to pave the way for commercial flights of Virgin's SpaceShipTwo. It is the first agreement of its type for a commercial spaceline.

Virgin Galactic has has decided which fuel will be used in the first passenger-carrying flights of its suborbital spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo. The solid fuel grains that will power the world’s largest operational hybrid rocket will be a thermoset plastic similar to nylon.